It may seem a bit premature to throw up a list of predictions for an upcoming set in the midst of Worldwake’s launch.  But we here at Gathering Magic enjoy getting our predictions out well in advance of any possible information.  Anyone can extrapolate what a set is going to be like with 75% of the information available.  It’s another thing entirely to try and do this with only mild rumblings.  In the past, my record has teetered around 50% accuracy.  This means, half of what you’re about to read is likely to be true!   Okay, so I’m no mathematician, but the fact of the matter is, we get a lot of things right given the earliness of our predictions.  So hold on to your Worldwake hats because Rise of the Eldrazi is going to be here sooner than you think!

Vol, Slave of Bolas – Let’s start this thing off with a bang, shall we? For most casual players, the chase card in any modern expansion is the inevitable planeswalker card.  We know that Jace, Sarkhan, Nissa, Chandra and Sorin are all present on Zendikar.  The only one that has failed to materialize thus far is Sarkhan.  I am predicting that he will be the only planeswalker card in Rise of the Eldrazi.  Five is enough for any block considering Alara only had five, in total.  If you didn’t catch the reference, this card is a play on Slave of Bolas.  Vol is apparently working for Nicol Bolas on Zendikar guarding the legendary Eye of Ugin, and it is clear that he is slowly losing his sanity.  Thus my predictions of abilities that affect both you and your opponent.  He’s a bit unstable these days, you see.  While I can’t possibly predict each of his abilities, mana cost and starting loyalty, this is our best guess on the almost certain inclusion of Sarkhan Vol.

More Dual Lands – There comes a point when there are so many dual lands in standard that it can’t possibly hurt to include 10 more!  That seems to be the attitude with the Zendikar block as Worldwake brought us even more dual colored lands.  Rise of the Eldrazi is said to be a stand-alone drafting set so you’re going to need a few dual lands to get that going in limited.  I can’t tell you what the lands will look like, just that they’ll be there, without a doubt.  I’d expect lands that have to do with Eldrazi spells costing less or two more.  Personally, I think the idea of lands that come into play tapped is a bit played-out and I’d like to see Wizards try something else.  Though, Amulet of Vigor can help you with that if you’re not feeling Alara’s tri-colored lands.

Ghostfire is in – There’s a debate raging right now over the simplest of cards.  Ghostfire premiered in Future Sight and refers to the Eye of Ugin so many people assume it’s a shew-in for RotE.  On the other hand, the card isn’t an “Eldrazi Spell” so it won’t get any bonuses from the Eye, or any other card that denotes “Eldrazi” as a type.  Perhaps we’ll see a quick errata here in the coming days.  My own prediction is that the card will be included in the set at a common rarity.  It isn’t a horrible limited card and could easily grab a bonus from anything buffs that RotE might give colorless spells.  Not a great card out of context, but I think the evidence points ever so slightly to its inclusion.  Expect to see other colorless cards within the same vein; overpriced, but when paired with something like Eye of Ugin come in as great additions.  Imagine eight Lightning Bolts coming your opponent’s way in one deck!

Eldrazi are expensive… Help! – From all flavor indications, the Eldrazi are giant, world-wrecking beings of nearly unlimited power.  That kind of energy is sure to cost a lot of mana.  Eye of Ugin tells us a lot about how expensive these guys will be by suggesting that we’ll “need help” casting them and/or finding them in our library at the right time.   Look for more cards like Eldrazi Temple and the Eye to help you get these guys out quicker.

Rumors are always true… in Fantasy! – Last year, a mysterious poster on the popular forum mtgsalvation dropped a spoiler-bomb on the MTG community.  He claimed to have access to Eldrazi-ish information and threw up a few quick notes on the set.  The first was an ability called “Annihilate X” meaning -  “When this creature attacks, the defending player sacrifices X permanents.”  A fitting ability for a giant, world ruining race of Eldrazi, no?  It seems overpowered at first but I think these Eldrazi “gods” will cost an arm and a leg to get out.  Basically, I think the entire game will be focused on either summoning these guys, or preventing their summoning.  Either way, “Anihilate 1″ wouldn’t be so bad on a giant creature.  The second ability was something called “Level Up X“.  Meaning - pay X, put a level counter on this creature. Level up only as a sorcery.  What those levels will entail, we can only guess.  This one is tad more believable because we’ve already seen it on at least one card.  Figure of Destiny is a fan favorite that was never really thought to be overpowered.  This ability also seems both plausible and fun.  The same rumor monger also had a full card to “spoil” called Eldrazi Temple who’s mockup is featured to the left.  This card caught my eye in particular because it included the phrase “Colorless Eldrazi Spells” which, at the time, hadn’t been seen before (this was at least a month before “the Eye” was spoiled).  Now, whether or not this guy got things mixed up with an early copy of Eye of Ugin– only time will tell, but this card seems likely as well!

Eldrazi equals Giant, Colossus-esque gods of Magic the Gathering – Prepare to feast your eyes on some of the most powerful creature cards ever printed.  As I said eariler, all signs point to these guys being huge, and hard to deploy.  My thought is that the Eldrazi will be Legendary beings with unique names, perhaps 10 or 15 of them in the set.  They’ll cost an arm and a leg but it might just be worth the price considering the power I’m expecting these guys to pack.  They might even include the aforementioned “Level Up” ability.  Maybe they need to do some good old fashioned grinding before they become even remotely terrifying!  Some have even speculated that an entirely new card type will be created for the Eldrazi.  Doubtful in our humble opinion but who knows how these freaks will work!  They will, of course, be colorless but it remains to be seen if they’ll actually be “artifacts” or they’ll include colors in their mana cost (ala Ghostfire) whilst remaining colorless.  Either way, these guys are going to be huge, often indestructible, tramplers with crazy abilities.

Even more Allies, Vampires, Elves, and Kor – *possible spoiler alert!* We already know that Sorin and Nissa band together (along with their respective tribes, I presume) to defeat the Eldrazi.  I presume that the Kor and even Goblins will also follow suit if the fate of their world is at hand.  I think allies, as well, were created to go up against these guys.  If you take a look at our Memnor mockup above, you can see that this is probably a group of dedicated allies attempting to bring down the cloud giant.  Expect a heavy Braveheart style “Unite the Clans” theme going on.  For this you’ll need more actual ally, elf and even (yes, more) Vampire support!  It seems as though everyone in the multiverse– Bolas, Sorin, Jace, Elves etc thinks that letting the Eldrazi run free is a bad idea.  They must be at least moderately badass to scare a 10,000 year old dragon, after all.  It will take the entire multiverse to stop them.

A perfect for lead in for the new “Artifact-centered” block this Fall – This prediction may not be proven or disprove by the time we know everything about Rise of the Eldrazi.  Rumor has it (and you know how I love rumors!) the next block will be a return to Mirrodin.  This news comes from a recent trademark registration by Wizards that included the names: New Phyrixia, Scars of Mirrodin and Mirrodin Pure.  Colorless cards and lands that produce colorless mana will mix very will with an upcoming artifact block.  A colorless heavy block will also be a great way to say goodbye to the multicolor bonanza brought to you via Alara.  Mirrodin was also Magic’s “Hay day” and I think Wizards is ever so eager to recreate that success.  If these rumors turn out to be true (and I’m betting they will), we’ll look back at the Rise of the Eldrazi spoiler list and think: “What a brilliant move to make right before an entire block of artifacts…“

Alright kiddos, you know the drill.  We’ll take a look at these predictions as soon as the set is released this April 23rd, 2010. Make your mark on MTG history by posting a comment here, early enough to count, with your very own predictions.  If it comes true, you can tweet me with an “I told you so!” every day for the next three years.  You know I’ll be doing the same!

Like this article? Try these:

1. Rise of the Eldrazi Predictions: The Retrospective
2. Worldwake Predictions & Conjectures: Revisited
3. Predictions and Conjectures – Worldwake
4. Rise of the Eldrazi Spoiler Wrap-up 4/1/10
5. Magic 2011 Core Set Predictions and Conjectures